Matthew 1:2 Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Matthew 8:11 I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Matthew 22:32 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Mark 12:26 But about the dead, that they are raised; haven't you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying,'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Luke 3:34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Luke 13:28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves being thrown outside. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Luke 20:37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord'The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Acts 7:8 He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Hebrews 11:9 By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Hebrews 11:17 By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his one and only son; (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

James 2:21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 17:19 God said, "No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 17:21 But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 21:5 Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 21:8 The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 21:9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with Isaac. (BBE RSV)

Genesis 21:10 Therefore she said to Abraham, "Cast out this handmaid and her son! For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, Isaac." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 21:12 God said to Abraham, "Don't let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 22:2 He said, "Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 22:3 Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 22:6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 22:7Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, "My father?" He said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 22:9 They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 24:3 And take an oath by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living; (BBE)

Genesis 24:4 But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 24:14 Let it happen, that the young lady to whom I will say,'Please let down your pitcher, that I may drink,' and she will say,'Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink,'-let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 24:62Isaac came from the way of Beer Lahai Roi, for he lived in the land of the South. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 24:63Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening. He lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV)

Genesis 24:67Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. He loved her. Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 25:6 but to the sons of Abraham's concubines, Abraham gave gifts. He sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, to the east country. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 25:9Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre, (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 25:19 This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 25:20Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 26:1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 26:2 Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about. (See NIV)

Genesis 26:8 It happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 26:9 Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say,'She is my sister?'" Isaac said to him, "Because I said,'Lest I die because of her.'" (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 26:11 And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death. (BBE)

Genesis 26:12Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 26:18Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 26:20 The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 26:27Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?" (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 26:31 They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 27:1 It happened, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, "My son?" He said to him, "Here I am." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 27:2 He said, "See now, I am old. I don't know the day of my death. (See NAS NIV)

Genesis 27:5 Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 27:20Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?" He said, "Because Yahweh your God gave me success." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 27:27 He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, "Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed. (See NIV)

Genesis 27:30 It happened, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 27:33Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 27:37Isaac answered Esau, "Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?" (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 27:39Isaac his father answered him, "Behold, of the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling, and of the dew of the sky from above. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 27:46 Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?" (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 28:6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan," (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 28:13 Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, "I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 31:18 and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 31:42 Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 31:53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 32:9 Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me,'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,' (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 35:12 The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your seed after you will I give the land." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 35:29Isaac gave up the spirit, and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV)

Genesis 46:1 Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 48:15 He blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 48:16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 49:31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah: (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 50:24 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Exodus 3:6 Moreover he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Exodus 3:15 God said moreover to Moses, "You shall tell the children of Israel this,'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Exodus 3:16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them,'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt; (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Isaac (127 Occurrences)... In consequence of a famine (Genesis 26:1) Isaac went to Gerar, where he practised deception as to his relation to Rebekah, imitating the conduct of his father .../i/isaac.htm - 60k

Isaac's (8 Occurrences)...Isaac's (8 Occurrences). Genesis 21:8 And the lad groweth, and is weaned, and Abraham maketh a great banquet in the day of Isaac's being weaned; (YLT). .../i/isaac&#39;s.htm - 8k

Rebecca (28 Occurrences)... Romans 9:10 Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. ... And Isaac was comforted after the death of his mother. (DBY). .../r/rebecca.htm - 14k

Gerar (10 Occurrences)... in the south border of Palestine, which was ruled over by a king named Abimelech (Genesis 10:19; 20:1, 2). Abraham sojourned here, and perhaps Isaac was born .../g/gerar.htm - 12k

Armenian... be done. Hence in 397 the celebrated Mesrob Mashtots and Isaac (Sachak) the Catholicos resolved to translate the Bible. Mesrob had .../a/armenian.htm - 18k

Rebekah (31 Occurrences)... Easton's Bible Dictionary A noose, the daughter of Bethuel, and the wife of Isaac (Genesis 22:23; 24:67). The circumstances under .../r/rebekah.htm - 21k

Blesseth (55 Occurrences)... Genesis 25:11 And it cometh to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessethIsaac his son; and Isaac dwelleth by the Well of the Living One, my Beholder. .../b/blesseth.htm - 22k

Beer-lahai-roi (3 Occurrences)... 14). Isaac dwelt beside this well (24:62; 25:11). ... (ASV DBY JPS NAS). Genesis 24:62 And Isaac came from the way of Beer-lahai-roi. For .../b/beer-lahai-roi.htm - 8k

Abim'elech (58 Occurrences)... days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. (See RSV). Genesis 26:8 And it came to pass, when .../a/abim&#39;elech.htm - 22k

(laughter), the son whom Sara bore to Abraham, in the hundredth year of his age, at Gerar. (B.C. 1897.) In his infancy he became the object of Ishmael's jealousy; and in his youth the victim, in intention, of Abraham's great sacrificial act of faith. When forty years old he married Rebekah his cousin, by whom, when he was sixty, he had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Driven by famine to Gerar, he acquired great wealth by his flocks but was repeatedly dispossessed by the Philistines of the wells which he sunk at convenient stations. After the deceit by which Jacob acquired his father's blessing Isaac sent his son to seek a wife in Padan-aram; and all that we know of him during the last forty-three years of his life in that he saw that GOD, with a large and prosperous family, return to him at Hebron. (Genesis 36:27) before he died there, at the age of 180 years. He was buried by his two sons in the cave of Machpelah. In the New Testament reference is made to the offering of Isaac (Hebrews 11:17; James 2:21) and to his blessing his sons. (Hebrews 11:20) In (Galatians 4:28-31) he is contrasted with Ishmael. In reference to the offering up of Isaac by Abraham, the primary doctrine taught are those of sacrifice and substitution, as the means appointed by God for taking away sin; and, as co-ordinate with these, the need of the obedience of faith, on the part of man, to receive the benefit. (Hebrews 11:17) The animal which God provided and Abraham offered was in the whole history of sacrifice the recognized type of "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." Isaac is the type of humanity itself, devoted to death for sin.

ATS Bible Dictionary

Isaac

Laughter, Genesis 17:17 18:12 21:6, one of the patriarchal ancestors of the Hebrew nation and of Christ, son of Abraham and Sarah, B. C. 1896-1705. His history is related in Genesis 21:1-34 24:1-28:22 35:27-29. He is memorable for the circumstances attending his birth, as a child of prophecy and promise, in the old age of his parents. Even in childhood he was the object of dislike to his brother Ishmael, son of the bondwoman; and in this, a type of all children of the promise, Galatians 4:29. Trained in the fear of God to early manhood, he showed a noble trust and obedience in his conduct during that remarkable trail of faith which established Abraham as the "father of the faithful;" and in his meek submission to all the will of God, prefigured the only-begotten Son of the Father. At the age of forty, he married the pious and lovely Rebekah of Mesopotamia. Most of his life was spent in the southern part of Canaan and its vicinity. At the burial of his father, he as joined by his outcast brother Ishmael. Two sons of Isaac are named in Scripture. The partiality of the mother for Jacob, and of the father for Esau, led to unhappy jealousies, discord, sin, and long separations between the brothers, though all were overruled to accomplish the purposed of God. At the age of one hundred and thirty-seven, Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him away into Mesopotamia. At the age of one hundred and eighty, he died, and was buried in the tomb of Abraham by his two sons. In his natural character, Isaac was humble, tranquil, and meditative; in his piety, devout, full of faith, and eminently submissive to the will of God.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ISAAC

i'-zak:oIT- (CS:HebrewIT+`iruIT-/cS): Eldest son of Caleb (1 Chronicles 4:15); probably to be read Ir, the syllable "-u" being the conjunction "and" belonging to the following word.

I. NAME

1. Root, Forms, Analogues

2. Implication

II. FAMILY AND KINDRED

1. Birth and Place in the Family

2. Relation to the Religious Birthright

3. Significance of Marriage

III. STORY OF LIFE

1. Previous to Marriage

2. Subsequent to Marriage

IV. BIBLICAL REFERENCES

1. In the Old Testament

2. In the New Testament

V. VIEWS OTHER THAN THE HISTORICAL

I. Name.

1. Root, Forms and Analogues:

This name has the double spelling, yitschaq, and yitschaq (Isaak), corresponding to the two forms in which appears the root meaning "to laugh"-a root that runs through nearly all the Semitic languages. In Hebrew both tsachaq and sachaq have their cognate nouns, and signify, in the simple stem, "to laugh," in the intensive stem, "to jest, play, dance, fondle," and the like. The noun yitshar, meaning "fresh oil," from a root tsahar ("to be bright, conspicuous"), proves that nouns can be built on precisely the model of yitschaq, which would in that case signify "the laughing one," or something similar. Yet Barth (Die Nominalbildung in den semitischen Sprachen, 154, b and c) maintains that all proper names beginning with yodh prefixed to the root are really pure imperfects, i.e. verbal forms with some subject to be understood if not actually present. Hence, Isaac would mean "laughs": either indefinite, "one laughs," or "he laughs," namely, the one understood as the subject. There are some 50 Hebrew names that have a similar form with no accompanying subject. Of these sometimes the meaning of the root is quite obscure, sometimes it is appropriate to any supposable subject. Each is a problem by itself; for the interpretation of any one of them there is little help to be gained from a comparison with the others.

2. Implication:

What subject, then, is to be understood with this imperfect verb yitschaq? Or is no definite subject to be supplied?

(1) 'El, God, may be supplied: "God laughs." Such an expression might be understood of the Divine benevolence, or of the fearful laughter of scorn for His enemies (Psalm 2:4), or, euphemistically, of the Divine wrath, the "terrible glance," as of Moloch, etc. (so Meyer, Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstdmme, 255).

(2) Some human person: "he laughs." So, for example, he himself, namely, the child who receives the name; or, the father; or, the brother (not the mother, which would require titschaq). In the light now of these possibilities we turn to the narratives of Isaac's birth and career and find the following subjects suggested:

We find this same verb in these senses in Genesis 19:14 and 39:14, 17, in the stories of Lot and of Joseph, and it is possible that here also in the story of Isaac it has no more connection with the name Isaac than it has there with the names Lot and Joseph. However, this may be, there is obviously one interpretation of the name Isaac, which, required in two of the passages, is equally appropriate in them all, namely, that with the indefinite subect, "one laughs." Consideration of the sources to which these passages are respectively assigned by the documentary hypothesis tends only to confirm this result.

II. Family and Kindred.

The two things in Isaac's life that are deemed worthy of extensive treatment in the sacred narrative are his birth and his marriage. His significance, in fact, centers in his transmission of what went before him to what came after him. Hence, his position in his father's family, his relation to its greatest treasure, the religious birthright, and his marriage with Rebekah are the subjects that require special notice in this connection.

1. Birth and Place in the Family:

The birth of Isaac is represented as peculiar in these respects: the age of his parents, the purity of his lineage, the special Divine promises accompanying. What in Abraham's life is signalized by the Divine "call" in the from his father's house, and what in Jacob's life is brought about by a series of providential interpositions, seems in Isaac's case to become his by his birth. His mother, who is not merely of the same stock as Abraham but actually his half-sister, is the legal wife. As her issue Isaac is qualified by the laws of inheritance recognized in their native land to become his father's heir. But Ishmael, according to those laws, has a similarly valid claim (see ABRAHAM, iv, 2), and it is only by express command that Abraham is led to abandon what was apparently both custom and personal preference, to "cast out the bondwoman and her son," and to acquiesce in the arrangement that "in Isaac shall thy seed be called."

2. Relation to the Religious Birthright:

But the birthright of Isaac was of infinitely more importance than the birthright in the family of any other wealthy man of that day. All that limitless blessing with which Abraham set forth under God's leadership was promised not only to him but to his "seed"; it was limitless in time as well as in scope. To inherit it was of more consequence to Isaac than to inherit any number of servants, flocks or wells of his father's acquisition. A sense of these relative values seems to have been a part of Isaac's spiritual endowment, and this, more than anything else related of him, makes him an attractive figure on the pages of Gen.

3. Significance of Marriage:

The raising up of a "seed" to be the bearers of these promises was the prime concern of Isaac's life. Not by intermarriage with the Canaanites among whom he lived, but by marriage with one of his own people, in whom as much as in himself should be visibly embodied the separateness of the chosen family of God-thus primarily was Isaac to pass on to a generation as pure as his own the heritage of the Divine blessing. Rebekah enters the tent of Isaac as truly the chosen of God as was Abraham himself.

III. Story of Life.

Previous to his marriage Isaac's life is a part of the story of Abraham; after his marriage it merges into that of his children. It is convenient, therefore, to make his marriage the dividing-line in the narrative of his career.

1. Previous to Marriage:

A child whose coming was heralded by such signal marks of Divine favor as was Isaac's would be, even apart from other special considerations, a welcome and honored member of the patriarchal household. The covenant-sign of circumcision (which Isaac was the first to receive at the prescribed age of 8 days), the great feast at his weaning, and the disinheritance of Ishmael in his favor, are all of them indications of the unique position that this child held, and prepare the reader to appreciate the depth of feeling involved in the sacrifice of Isaac, the story of which follows thereupon. The age of Isaac at the time of this event is not stated, but the fact that he is able to carry the wood of the offering shows that he had probably attained his full growth. The single question he asks his father and his otherwise unbroken silence combine to exhibit him in a favorable light, as thoughtful, docile and trustful. The Divine interposition to save the lad thus devoted to God constitutes him afresh the bearer of the covenant-promise and justifies its explicit renewal on this occasion. From this point onward the biographer of Isaac evidently has his marriage in view, for the two items that preceded the long 24th chaper, in which Rebekah's choice and coming are rehearsed, are, first, the brief genealogical paragraph that informs the reader of the development of Nahor's family just as far as to Rebekah, and second, the chapter that tells of Sarah's death and burial-an event clearly associated in the minds of all with the marriage of Isaac (see Genesis 24:3, 16, 67). Divine interest in the choice of her who should be the mother of the promised seed is evident in every line of the chapter that dramatizes the betrothal of Isaac and Rebekah. Their first meeting is described at its close with the tender interest in such a scene natural to every descendant of the pair, and Issac is sketched as a man of a meditative turn (Genesis 24:63) and an affectionate heart (Genesis 24:67).

2. Subsequent to Marriage:

The dismissal of the sons of Abraham's concubines to the "East-country" is associated with the statement that Isaac inherited all that Abraham had; yet it has been remarked that, besides supplying them with gifts, Abraham was doing them a further kindness in thus emancipating them from continued subjection to Isaac, the future head of the clan. After Abraham's death we are expressly informed that God "blessed Isaac his son" in fulfillment of previous promise. The section entitled "the toledhoth (generations) of Isaac" extends from Genesis 25:19 to 35:29. At the opening of it Isaac is dwelling at Beer-lahai-roi (25:11), then at Gerar (26:1, 6) and "the valley of Gerar" (26:17), then at Beer-sheba (26:23; 28:10), all localities in the Negeb or "South-country." But after the long narrative of the fortunes of Jacob and his family, occupying many years, we find Isaac at its close living where his father Abraham had lived, at Hebron.

For 20 years Isaac and Rebekah remained childless; it was only upon the entreaty of Isaac that God granted them their twin sons. A famine was the usual signal for emigration to Egypt (compare Genesis 12:10; Genesis 42:2); and Isaac also appears to have been on his way thither for the same cause, when, at Gerar, he is forbidden by God to proceed, and occasion is found therein to renew to him the covenant-promise of his inheritance: land, posterity, honor and the Divine presence (Genesis 26:1-4).

But Isaac had also received from his father traditions of another sort; he too did not hesitate to say to the men of Gerar that his wife was his sister, with the same intent to save his own life, but without the same justification in fact, as in the case of Abraham's earlier stratagem. Yet even the discovery by the king of Gerar of this duplicity, and repeated quarrels about water in that dry country, did not suffice to endanger Isaac's status with the settled inhabitants, for his large household and great resources made him a valuable friend and a dangerous enemy.

The favoritism which Isaac showed for one son and Rebekah for the other culminated in the painful scene when the paternal blessing was by guile obtained for Jacob, and in the subsequent enforced absence of Jacob from his parental home. Esau, too, afforded no comfort to his father and mother, and ere long he also withdrew from his father's clan. The subsequent reconciliation of the brothers permitted them to unite at length in paying the last honors to Isaac on his decease. Isaac was buried at Hebron where his parents had been buried (Genesis 49:31), and where' his place of sepulture is still honored.

IV. Biblical References.

There is a great contrast between Abraham and Jacob on the one hand, and Isaac on the other, with respect to their prominence in the literature of the nation that traced to them its descent. To be sure, when the patriarchs as a group are to be named, Isaac takes his place in the stereotyped formula of "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," or "Israel" (so 23 times in the Old Testament, 7 times in the New Testament).

1. In the Old Testament:

But apart from this formula Isaac is referred to in the Old Testament only as follows. During the lifetime of Jacob the names of Abraham and Isaac are repeatedly linked in the same way as are all three subsequently: they form for that age the dynasty of the covenant. But several times Jacob calls Yahweh the God (or, the Fear; see infra) of Isaac, because Isaac is his own immediate predecessor in this chain of the faithful. Isaac is called the "gift" of God to Abraham, in the farewell address of Joshua, just as Jacob and Esau are called God's "gifts" to Isaac (Joshua 24:3; compare Koran, Sura 6 84). The "house of Isaac" is used by Amos as a parallel expression for "Israel," and "the high places of Isaac" for "the sanctuaries of Israel" (Amos 7:16, 9), in the same way as "Jacob" is often used elsewhere Septuagint in Amos 7:16 reads "Jacob"). Other references to Isaac are simply as to his father's son or his children's father.

2. In the New Testament:

He fares better in the New Testament. For, besides the genealogical references, Isaac's significance as the first to receive circumcision on the 8th day is remembered (Acts 7:8); his position as first of the elect seed is set forth (Romans 9:7); his begetting of two sons so unlike in their relation to the promise as were Esau and Jacob is remarked (Romans 9:10); the facts of his being heir to the promise, a child of old age, and, though but one, the father of an innumerable progeny, are emphasized in Heb (11:9-12), which also discovers the deeper significance of his sacrifice and restoration to his father (11:17-19; compare James 2:21); and in the same context is noticed the faith in God implied in Isaac's blessing of his sons. But Isaac receives more attention than anywhere else in that famous passage in Galatians (4:21-31), in which Paul uses Isaac and his mother as allegorical representations of Christians who are justified by faith in the promise of God, and are the free-born heirs of all the spiritual inheritance implied in that promise. Even Isaac's persecution by Ishmael has its counterpart in the attitude of the enemies of Paul's gospel toward him and his doctrines and converts.

V. Views Other than the Historical.

Philo, the chief allegorizer of Scriptural narratives, has little to say of Isaac, whom he calls "the self-instructed nature." But modern critics have dissolved his personality by representing him as the personification of an ethnic group. "All Israel," writes Wellhausen (Prol., 6th edition, 316), "is grouped with the people of Edom under the old name Isaac (Amos 7:9, 16). the material here is not mythical (as in Genesis 1-11) but national." And just as Israel plus Edom had little or no significance in national customs or political events, when compared on the one hand with Israel alone (= Jacob), and with Israel plus Edom plus Moab and Ammon (= Abraham) on the other hand; so likewise the figure of Isaac is colorless and his story brief, as compared with the striking figures of Jacob on the one hand and of Abraham on the other hand, and the circumstantial stories of their lives.

Other scholars will have none of this national view, because they believe Isaac to be the name of an ancient deity, the local numen of Beersheba. Stark, whom others have followed, proposes to interpret the phrase translated "the Fear of Isaac" in Genesis 31:42, 53 as the name of this god used by his worshippers, the Terror Isaac, Isaac the terrible god. For the sense of Isaac in that case see above under I, 2, (1). Meyer (loc. cit.) defends the transfer of the name from a god to the hero of a myth, by comparing the sacrifice of Isaac ("the only story in which Isaac plays an independent role"!) with the Greek myth of Iphigenia's sacrifice (Hesiod, Euripides, etc.), in which the by-name of a goddess (Iphigenia) identified with Artemis has passed to the intended victim rescued by Artemis from death.

The most recent critical utterances reject both the foregoing views of Isaac as in conflict with the data of Gen. Thus Gunkel (Schriften des Altes Testament, 5te Lieferung, 1910, 41) writes: "Quite clearly the names of Abraham, Isaac, and all the patriarchal women are not tribal names.. The interpretation of the figures of Genesis as nations furnishes by no means a general key." And again: "Against the entire assumption that the principal patriarchal figures are originally gods, is above all to be noted that the names Jacob and Abraham are proved by the Babylonian to be personal names in current use, and at the same time that the sagas about them can in no wise be understood as echoes of original myths. Even Winckler's more than bold attempt to explain these sagas as original calendar-myths must be pronounced a complete failure." Yet Gunkel and those who share his position are careful to distinguish their own view from that of the "apologetes," and to concede no more than the bare fact that there doubtless were once upon a time persons named Abraham Isaac, etc. For these critics Isaac is simply a name about which have crystallized cycles of folk-stories, that have their parallels in other lands and languages, but have received with a Hebrew name also a local coloring and significance on the lips of successive Hebrew story-tellers, saga-builders and finally collectors and editors; "Everyone who knows the history of sagas is sure that the saga is not able to preserve through the course of so many centuries, a true picture" of the patriarchs.

Laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes (Amos 7:9, 16).

(2.) The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest lived of the three patriarchs (Genesis 21:1-3). He was circumcised when eight days old (4-7); and when he was probably two years old a great feast was held in connection with his being weaned.

The next memorable event in his life is that connected with the command of God given to Abraham to offer him up as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah (Genesis 22). (see ABRAHAM.) When he was forty years of age Rebekah was chosen for his wife (Genesis 24). After the death and burial of his father he took up his residence at Beer-lahai-roi (25:7-11), where his two sons, Esau and Jacob, were born (21-26), the former of whom seems to have been his favourite son (27, 28).

In consequence of a famine (Genesis 26:1) Isaac went to Gerar, where he practised deception as to his relation to Rebekah, imitating the conduct of his father in Egypt (12:12-20) and in Gerar (20:2). The Philistine king rebuked him for his prevarication.

After sojourning for some time in the land of the Philistines, he returned to Beersheba, where God gave him fresh assurance of covenant blessing, and where Abimelech entered into a covenant of peace with him.

The next chief event in his life was the blessing of his sons (Genesis 27:1). He died at Mamre, "being old and full of days" (35:27-29), one hundred and eighty years old, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah.

Isaac is "at once a counterpart of his father in simple devoutness and purity of life, and a contrast in his passive weakness of character, which in part, at least, may have sprung from his relations to his mother and wife. After the expulsion of Ishmael and Hagar, Isaac had no competitor, and grew up in the shade of Sarah's tent, moulded into feminine softness by habitual submission to her strong, loving will." His life was so quiet and uneventful that it was spent "within the circle of a few miles; so guileless that he let Jacob overreach him rather than disbelieve his assurance; so tender that his mother's death was the poignant sorrow of years; so patient and gentle that peace with his neighbours was dearer than even such a coveted possession as a well of living water dug by his own men; so grandly obedient that he put his life at his father's disposal; so firm in his reliance on God that his greatest concern through life was to honour the divine promise given to his race.", Geikie's Hours, etc.